if_language's Xanga

New pens

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:40:25 GMT

Yes, in the plural. But not the Sapporo or 1911. Rather, I've found a source in the UK (The Writing Desk) that carries the Lamy abc - the fountain pen for children that I stumbled across in the Berlin airport 3 years ago or so. So I've now ordered a bunch, so I can keep one at home, one in the office and one in the bag that goes to seminars. I did switch from a medium nib to a fine one, which I like much better.

I still like them a lot, and think they are probably the nicest inexpensive fountain pen I have. I like them better than the Lamy Safaris I have.

I also ordered some converters for them, and the office pen is now using one of them, and Noodler's Eternal Polar Blue. I quite like the color. It comes out slightly darker than it appears on my monitors, but that's fine with me. If I can figure out how the links / photos here work again, I might upload a sample.

As a little plug - the people at the Writing Desk have been quite friendly and helpful. I'm sure I'll end up ordering from them again.

And will probably be moving this blog (or just letting it die) - Xanga (originally recommended by a friend, and used to be fine) seems to keep adding "features" that I just find more annoying and make the site difficult to use.

A new pen?

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:59:14 GMT

So, now that I'm a bit more settled in to life in Cambridge, I've been thinking it is time to get a decent pen to leave in the office (or briefcase). I have a Lamy there, which is fun, as well as one of my Pelikanos (also fun) but I want something more serious. I had been planning on another Pelikan M215, since that is my default editing pen. I may still go that route. But I came across the Sailor Sapporo today. I'm also quite happy with my Sailor 1911 (my other editing pen, basically) so wonder about getting one of those instead.

Ah, decisions, decisions. (Yes, one could just buy one of each, but that's more than I want to spend right now.)

Anyway, off to take notes for tomorrow's reading group with the Namiki Falcon. Not very suited for editing, since I tend to write small, cramped notes when editing, but nice for just writing notes and such.

Neither words nor pens...

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:43:39 GMT

Although this will surely come as a shock to my friends (well, if I had any. Xanga still says I don't... - well, it did, but they were just self-adverts for parts of Xanga, so they don't count. Got rid of them anyway) I must be the most incurable optimist around. What else could possibly explain the fact that, despite repeated experience, I keep buying things the shops around here (Cambridge, UK) sell as "bagels" despite the fact that they taste absolutely nothing like a bagel should?

I guess some part of my brain must go "Ohhh.... look! Bagels! Maybe they've finally figured out how to make them!" despite the fact that they still haven't done so, and in my more lucid moments, I don't expect they ever will.

It's enough to make a person come unhinged, if you ask me.

Unhinged...

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 05:09:32 GMT

Well, it's been not one of my best Christmases. While relaxing yesterday morning, I figured I would run some routine maintenance on the computer, stuff I've done dozens of times before on multiple computers. This time it decided to crash the system. Catastrophically. As in, reformat the hard drive and start from scratch. So much for relaxing...

Anyway, today I am reloading all the tons of files and what-not. I have iTunes reloaded, and am playing The Decemberists "The Crane Wife" while the computer chugs away. I'll have to write more about them and their use of language at some point. But I was quite amused - as I always am - with one particular passage in "Oh, Valencia!", a song they described in concert as being their "Latino gang war song" (or words to that effect). I am particularly fond of the passage describing, how after the guy meets the girl from the rival gang: "and your father came all unhinged." It just some how strikes me as rather unexpected in the larger context.

That's a great word: "unhinged". One of those that doesn't get used nearly enough. No, don't ask me why. I haven't really given it enough thought to be able to explain how or why it's such a great word. It just is.

Oddly, a quick search online for the etymology turns up nothing. (Well, ok, I didn't look THAT hard.) And my new Christmas present, "Chambers Dictionary of Etymology," doesn't give it either. Alas.

Lack of etymology notwithstanding, I think one of my New Year's resolutions should be to spend more time finding opportunities to use the word "unhinged" in everyday conversation.

And now for something completely different...

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 07:49:46 GMT

Not about pens or words this time...

When I log onto Amazon.co.uk, this is waiting for me at the top of the home page:

I'm not sure how disappointed they would be if I said I wasn't...

But it is much better than being reminded by Xanga that I don't have any friends.

Oooh, aah...

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:40:06 GMT

Just re-inked the Namiki Falcon with J. Herbin Eclat de Saphir - a lovely shade of blue. And a winning combination. Now I'll have to start writing people letters, or at least notes, to make best use of the pen and ink. They somehow seem wasted on shopping and to-do lists.

And to answer a question from foniyo in the comments to my last post, on shipping pens.

I presume a purist and/or a collector would say, yes, put them in their original boxes and then bubble-wrap or something. I didn't. The boxes are still in the US, in storage.

For the ones I carried with me on the plane - they went into a leather pen carrier from Levenger's that rolls up nice and snaps closed. I didn't see the exact one I have, but the one on their site called the "Bomber Jacket Pen Wrap," is basically the same thing, although mine looks to have softer, more supple leather.

For those I mailed - they got wrapped individually in several layers of bubble wrap each, and then were nested in an among a bunch of old books in Mongol bichig that I sent priority mail to myself.

But, of course, I removed the ink and washed all the pens first. The ones I've used so far (which isn't all of them yet) weathered the trip with no problem.

A return... (?)

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:50:31 GMT

Well, I hope it to be. Not that I have anything of particular use or interest to say right now. I've relocated to Cambridge (the real one, in the UK) and my shipment of books and other sundries finally arrived two days ago. Most of still needs to be unpacked, but I was able to dig out my fountain pen holder. So now all the pens (except the Safari that travels with me to and from the office) are happily ensconced on my desk in my flat. Most of them need to be refilled, but at least they are there.

And no - I didn't entrust the pens themselves to a sea-going container. The nice ones were carried in my carry-on luggage, and the others were mailed over with some old books.

Hopefully, as things settle down and in here, I'll be able to post here again.

Oh - yes. And if you've read this far - another return. About two weeks ago, I saw a nude cyclist again. Presumably the same one as almost a year and a half ago (how many nude cyclists can Cambridge have?), but I must admit, I don't really know.

The Sailor

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 15:44:41 GMT

Well, I see it's been over two months since I've posted here. My apologies to the few people who actually read (or used to read) this site. Blame it on a combination of "real life" and the occasional pondering over the point of blogs. They seem so, well, narcissistic and presumptuous. But I'm back, for at least a few more posts.

The subject refers to the Sailor 1911m I bought back in January. The short review: it's a great pen. It's one of the pens I reach for most often now. I still prefer the Namiki for writing thank you notes and the like, but for most writing, I now reach either for the Pelikan (the 215) or the Sailor. The Sailor is actually a bit lighter (no, I haven't weighed them - although if you check out various fountain pen sites, someone surely has) and has a broader nib. But it is just about the smoothest pen I have. I'm not going to put the time and effort into writing a longer, more complicated review, getting into all sorts of technical details. I'll just leave it at it is more often than not the pen I reach for these days, if I'm editing - although here the Pelikan is still a strong favorite, precisely because it has a finer nib - or just jotting a note to myself. I'll just add that it is a cool shade of yellow (I'll try to remember to post a picture at some point) and I definitely have no regrets or pangs of conscience in having bought it.

Police blotters

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 13:42:11 GMT

The town I live in, probably like most places in the US, has a weekly newspaper. It is, as is often the case, not particularly brilliant, but it has local information that wouldn't make it into even the regional papers. But my very favorite part of the paper has to be the police blotter. I'm sure the nature of the items listed in the blotter must be some sort of reflection on the town I live in, pre-occupations of the editors, or some such. There are the people arrested for possession of drugs, or people reporting vandalism. But there are also pure gems like this past week. The entry reads: "On Jan. 22 at 6:30 pm police discovered that the Park Ave street sign had been misplaced and was lying on the ground."

One wonders about the use of "misplaced" to describe the state of a street sign, but I marvel rather more at the item as a whole. There's almost pure beauty in its mere presence on the police blotter...

Pelikano junior

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 22:06:44 GMT

It came a few days ago. Saturday, I think it was. So I haven't used it that much, but enough to know that I like it. Once again, I'm impressed by the quality of an inexpensive pen.

From a visual inspection at least, the nib appears to be the same one as on the Pelikano. But the body of the pen is a bit fatter and heavier. I don't like overly big or fat pens, but I actually think I like the slightly greater heft of the Pelikano Junior a bit more than the Pelikano itself. It writes quite smoothly, but appears rather wet - ie, a fairly heavy ink flow. More so than the Pelikano or other pens in that range, but that may well be the individual nib than any design or anything. Or even just the ink. I think the Pelikano has J. Herbin ink in it, while with Junior I just stuck the cartridge that came with it in.

To be sure, there's no real chance of mistaking this pen for the Namiki Falcon, but then again, given the price difference, who would expect to? I actually think I may have to pick up a few more of these to have on hand, and to give out to people to try to convert them to fountain pens.